


of pills and exhaustion

by orphan_account



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone is a dumbass, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Medication, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, everyone be like... i wanna care for my sibling, five and delores are goals tbh, five be like.... go away, warning: reginald hargreeves is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 19:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17945750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: five just wants to go one day without being swarmed by his incessant siblings. unfortunately, his powers think otherwise. canon divergent AU where vanya is talked down from ending the world and allison never picked a fight with that violin bow.





	of pills and exhaustion

Five hasn't had passed out since he was fourteen.

It had first happened when he was six or seven, overworking himself and pushing to practice his ability and gain better control of it. Dad had warned him _'if you keep doing this Number Five, you will face the grave consequences,'_ but he hadn't listened.

Then again, if it came from Dad, he didn't usually tend to.

He had taken it one jump too far before the world spun like a merry-go-round and went black, and woken up on the floor with his siblings staring down at him, as well as Mom fretting and Dad looking at him like he had just announced he's going to become a street whore to get heroin money at raves. When told to cut to the chase, Mom explained the limits of his powers, and Dad couldn't look more disappointed. Five, however, couldn't have been more tired, so he simply let sleep wash over him again and woke up the next time in bed.

After that incident, Mom and Dad insisted he take medication, lest he decide to push himself again in the middle of a mission and get everyone killed- that was obviously, of course, an exaggeration, but it did happen in the house a good few times over the next couple of years and give his brothers and sisters heart attacks. Allison once even tried to rumor him awake, but no dice- once he hit the floor that was that.

The pills were supposed to 'lock' his powers as soon as he went too far, preventing him from using them until he regained his energy- sometimes he hated the idea of not being in control so much he didn't take them on purpose, usually leading to all the incidents in the house. During the time he was with the Commission, they took one look at his file, handed him some familiar-looking meds, and sent him on his merry way. And yeah, they did give him insomnia so bad he often stayed up until 4am, but it was a small price to pay to ensure you don't pass out on the job and get yourself killed. That, and a relief as soon as the nightmares started cropping up every night.

Travelling back to 2019 and suddenly laying off the pills whilst trying to save the world and using his powers excessively in the process was not, in fact, the best thing for dear Number Five. For the very first thing he did after Vanya was talked down from causing the apocalypse was teleport into the living room, watch the world around him swim in and out of focus, before darkness filled his vision and he crashed and burned on the couch in a glorious black-out that lasted about 40 minutes.

The first thing he saw was the blurred living room, before realizing Luther and Klaus were sitting on the couch adjacent to him, talking with the ghost of Ben- still invisible, but Klaus' powers allowed him to translate nonetheless. Vanya and Allison were at the bar, laughing quietly to themselves over rosé wine, and Diego was on his own. As usual. Edgy bastard.

With some effort Five managed to push himself upright, getting his bearings with a quiet sigh. The sound alerted Luther, who quickly announced his waking, gathering attention Five would very much appreciate not having right now.

"What happened?" Allison asked, suddenly leaning over to look at him with her arms crossed atop the back of the couch. He turned to look at her, vaguely aware of the fact he was tilting his head. "You really don't remember?" he asked, confusion evident. Allison always did panic the most whenever his powers decided it was time to go to sleep.

"Five has limits." Vanya answered quickly for him. "If he teleports too much, he passes out." "Oh my God, I remember!" Allison replied, her memory jumpstarted. "I tried to rumor you awake that one time! And- God, I always got so worried one day you'd over-exert in the wrong place at the wrong time and break your skull or something!"

"Look, it's no big deal, don't make a song and dance out of i-" Five tried to say, immediately being shut down by Klaus. _"Oh_ yeah! Didn't you used to take meds for that, Five? I gotta admit, I took a few of those while you were gone." He punctuates the end of his sentence with a half-sheepish, half-proud chuckle. At the mention of medication, Vanya shifts uncomfortably in her seat at the bar, and Allison gives her a sympathetic look. "Yeah, but-" Five attempts, Luther interrupting this time. Can he even get a word in edgewise about his own goddamn powers?

"So you aren't taking any medication?" "I _was."_ Finally, Five isn't being talked over. "It's.. a long story. And a confusing one. But I was." Luther hums in thought, before speaking up again. "Then we should probably get you back on those. Dad had a point back then." Allison nods her agreement, and Five can't help but roll his eyes.

"I don't need them anymore, I-" "You were out cold for forty minutes. Yeah, you do." Diego cuts in, and Five loses his temper. "Jesus fucking _Christ,_ can I talk for five seconds without being interrupted by a bunch of emotionally stunted man-children who don't have a fucking clue what they're talking about?!"

"You're lucky to even be getting four right now.." Vanya mumbles under her breath, all too familiar with her words being trampled by the Five Foot Nine And Over Crew. "As I was _saying,_ I don't need them anymore. I'm doing perfectly fine on my own." Liar. He **needs** them more and more every day, as on the nights he decides to sleep, his vision morphs into horrible, uncomfortable and long nightmares- sorry, _memories,_ of walking miserably along cracked roads, ash in his hair and the smell of smoke burning in his lungs as he tries to escape the chaos that seemingly follows him everywhere. Devastation for miles upon miles, and no escape from it all, his only partner being Delores. Speaking of his wife, he feels a twinge in his heart for her that can only be described by longing.

"-ive? Five!" Allison's voice brings him back to reality, and he turns to look at her again. "We're not gonna make you take them, but it'd probably help you. It's your choice." she shrugs, animated as ever as she talks, her earrings catching in the sun. They suit her. "No." Five forces himself to reply, knowing he's turning down his only relief from nightmare upon nightmare, memory upon memory, night after night spent teleporting into the room Dad locked Vanya into as a child to let his terrified, broken screams echo off of the walls and stay perfectly bottled up. "I don't need pills to help me, unlike Klaus." he snarks, managing to get a chuckle out of most people in the room.

But he's beginning to feel particularly socially exhausted. So he lets his words hang in the air and teleports without warning, feeling the familiar rush before he's back in his room, home, safe safe safe. Delores.

She immediately catches his eye- how couldn't she?- and he makes his way over, picking her up from her seat with care. There's an unspoken peace hanging over them, content to just look upon eachother's features. He's the first to break the silence, as usual. "I'm sorry I took so long, Delores. Got held up."

 _"It's completely fine, love,"_ she replies, her voice sweet like lavender honey. _"There's no need to apologize."_ Delores always managed to soothe any sorrow or grief- she just had that aura about her. _"Even if you took quite a while."_ "Fashionably late, as always." Five jokes, sitting on the edge of his bed. She laughs, knowing the joke applies more to her than him. _"Especially in those shorts. You look just as you did the day we met.. both of them."_

They both laugh this time. It's nice to fall back into familiarity, into love and comfort from Delores. He's glad they met.

They fall asleep a few minutes later, side by side, his scrawny legs hanging over the edge as he dreams not of harsh, ashen expanses, but of flower fields and Bordeaux and a pleasant summer haze.


End file.
